diff --git a/hbc b/hbc
index b21cd45..422444c 100755
--- a/hbc
+++ b/hbc
@@ -298,7 +298,9 @@ def process():
 				if verbose: print "sock.recvfrom: %s (%s) %s" % (addr, len(data), data[:4])
 				msgDict = stodict(data)
 				if verbose: print "sock.recvfrom: %s (%s) %s" % (addr, len(data), str(msgDict)[:80])
-				if msgDict['ID'] == "ACK":
+				if msgDict == None:
+					 print "bad backet from %s (%s) %s" % (addr, len(data), data)
+				elif msgDict['ID'] == "ACK":
 					conns[conn].ack(msgDict)
 				elif msgDict['ID'] == "UPD":
 					if doupdate(conn, msgDict) == None: